Things are either looking really grim or not too bad, depending on if you're a "glass half empty" kind of a person. Why? Because we have arrived at the point of no return. Either there will be a deal done with a cap, and this is now very clear to the NHLPA, or many guys will throw away a good piece of their hockey careers as well as money. After Trevor Linden, who is showing a lot of guts in the last few days, was spoken to by Dr. Evil (NHLPA Chief Bob), he came down and spoke about how he thought the season was lost but only because the NHL continues to insist on a cap. What a shock. Linden and the other NHLPA guys knew this when they took the meetings on Wednesday and Thursday and I believe that Trevor would make a deal with a cap today. But Bob is doing what unions do: take care of the union and screw the rank and file. There is supposedly a vote going on among the PA to see if they'll take a cap. The real results will never be made known - the NHLPA will say the players are overwhelmingly against it even though there is plenty of evidence to the contrary. Read between the lines of this piece in the New York Post where Marty Brodeur says they need to solve this and play. He knows there has to be a cap and he knows the terrible toll this is taking on the game.
Once more - the end game is this: there will be a cap. Now or later, but it is coming. To best serve the players and the game, the NHLPA should accept this and make a deal - lower the free agency age, get a bigger cut of the pie, but make a deal. Because whatever deal they can make today cannot be made next fall, and the piece they get will be of a much smaller pie.